One year after Apple's A7, Nvidia announces first 64-bit ARM CPU for Android

Chipmaker Nvidia on Tuesday detailed the new "Denver" variant of its Tegra K1 mobile processor, a high-performance in-order design that represents the first foray into 64-bit processing for Android devices — nearly a full year after Apple shocked the mobile world with its own 64-bit A7 processor.

Denver combines Nvidia's popular Kepler GPU with a new 64-bit dual-core CPU, the company's first in-house CPU design. Like Apple's A7, Denver is compatible with the ARMv8 architecture.

The chip also packs a 4-way, 128-kilobyte L1 instruction cache alongside a 4-way, 64-kilobyte L1 data cache and a 16-way, 2-megabyte L2 cache. Nvidia says each Denver core is capable of processing up to seven operations per clock cycle, compared with a reported six instructions per clock for the A7 and just three per clock for the 32-bit Tegra K1.

With Denver, Nvidia is touting a new architectural addition known as Dynamic Code Optimization. Using DCO, the CPU will "translate" oft-used ARM code into microcode and cache those instructions in a dedicated 128-megabyte translation buffer — the company said this can "effectively double" the performance of the base silicon.

There is no word on which device will be the first to ship with Denver, though Nvidia does promise full pin compatibility with 32-bit Tegra K1 variants for easier integration. The first 64-bit version of Android is currently in testing and is slated for release this fall.

Chipmakers have been scrambling to catch up with Apple's 64-bit A7, which the company unveiled alongside the iPhone 5s in September of last year. The chip's surprise introduction was said to have left industry insiders "slack-jawed, and stunned, and unprepared."

"Apple kicked everybody in the balls with this," a Qualcomm employee said at the time. "It's being downplayed, but it set off panic in the industry."

"Nvidia says each Denver core is capable of processing up to seven operations per clock cycle, compared with a reported six instructions per clock for the A7 and just three per clock for the 32-bit Tegra K1."

Apple sold millions of iPhones with the A7 last September and Nvidia is just getting around to announcing their 64-bit chip with no chip release date. They could easily be 1.5 years behind Apple in getting this into a shipping product and even longer if we're talking about matching the same volume as Apple.

They built a powerful processor that isn't suitable for phones (tablets only due to power consumption). Apple (1st) and Samsung (2nd) have the high-end tablet market locked down. That leaves a very small market of potential customers that could actually use this processor.

Nvidia should have been thinking of who they could sell a processor to instead of making a "beat" (we'll have to wait and see on this one) that has a very limited market potential.

Looking forward to Anandtech's review of the A8 once it's out in the world and how it compares to this Nvidia chip (once it's actually in a shipping product that is). We can be pretty sure the A8 will be out in September. Will the Nvidia even be shipping by then (let alone in an actual shipping product)? What about 64-bit Android and the developer tools? Apple has a nice lead and their owning the whole platform (hardware, software, dev tools) is a big advantage. Although some complain about it, their willingness to drop support for older products also allows them to move forward more quickly.

Apple sold millions of iPhones with the A7 last September and Nvidia is just getting around to announcing their 64-bit chip with no chip release date. They could easily be 1.5 years behind Apple in getting this into a shipping product and even longer if we're talking about matching the same volume as Apple.

So true. Nvidia's track record on "time of announcement" to "volume shipments" is... Rather poor.

They built a powerful processor that isn't suitable for phones (tablets only due to power consumption). Apple (1st) and Samsung (2nd) have the high-end tablet market locked down. That leaves a very small market of potential customers that could actually use this processor.

Nvidia should have been thinking of who they could sell a processor to instead of making a "beat" (we'll have to wait and see on this one) that has a very limited market potential.

I don't think phones are the main goal for Nvidia's 64BIT ARM chip but their server division, they announced back in 2012 that they were working on a 64BIT ARM Opteron.